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Colin Judge: Testing structural materials in Idaho’s newest hot cell facility
Idaho National Laboratory’s newest facility—the Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL)—sits across the road from the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF), which started operating in 1975. SPL will host the first new hot cells at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) in 50 years, giving INL researchers and partners new flexibility to test the structural properties of irradiated materials fresh from the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) or from a partner’s facility.
Materials meant to withstand extreme conditions in fission or fusion power plants must be tested under similar conditions and pushed past their breaking points so performance and limitations can be understood and improved. Once irradiated, materials samples can be cut down to size in SPL and packaged for testing in other facilities at INL or other national laboratories, commercial labs, or universities. But they can also be subjected to extreme thermal or corrosive conditions and mechanical testing right in SPL, explains Colin Judge, who, as INL’s division director for nuclear materials performance, oversees SPL and other facilities at the MFC.
SPL won’t go “hot” until January 2026, but Judge spoke with NN staff writer Susan Gallier about its capabilities as his team was moving instruments into the new facility.
Mohamed S. El-Genk, Dmitry V. Paramonov
Nuclear Technology | Volume 108 | Number 2 | November 1994 | Pages 171-180
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT94-A35028
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A detailed model of the electromagnetic pump of the TOPAZ-II space nuclear reactor power system is developed and compared with experimental data. The magnetic field strength in the pump depends not only on the current supplied by the pump thermionic fuel elements in the reactor core but also on the temperature of the coolant, the magnetic coil, and the pump structure. All electric and thermal properties of the coolant, wall material of the pump ducts, and electric leads are taken to be temperature dependent. The model predictions are in good agreement with experimental data.